Advisory Board

Big Citizen HUB’s Advisory Board is a volunteer group of professionals committed to supporting the strategy and sustainability of the organization. This group plays a critical role in guiding our service strategy and building the organization in the Los Angeles community.

David G. Price
David has spent 16 years in the Financial Services space. His career has been focused on relationship management, business development and enterprise sales. He has worked in both the public & private markets, trading and information services.
Currently, David serves as Senior Vice President of Business Development in Los Angeles for GLG (The Gerson Lehrman Group), where he is responsible for managing the LA/South West region of their financial services business. Additionally, David is a member of GLG’s sales management team tasked with directing business development strategy for GLG North American Financial Services. Prior to GLG, David held institutional sales and trading positions at BGC Partners/Cantor Fitzgerald, Rosenblatt Securities and Banc of America Securities.
David received degrees in Creative Writing and Philosophy at the University of Southern California and studied economics at University of California Berkeley. He currently resides in Marina Del Rey with his wife and daughter. David is also a published author of short fiction, an avid triathlete and a very poor player of the Guitar.

Denise Lopez
Strategic Advisor & Engagement Specialist
Denise is a 10-year veteran of bi-cultural community engagement, public affairs and political campaigns, experienced in recruiting and building coalitions comprised of influential political figures, media outlets and opinion leaders in key states and congressional districts. Denise understands grassroots organizing and how media, marketing, and other strategies fit into an advocacy campaign.
Most recently Denise served as a strategic communications consultant in Washington, D.C., at one of the largest public affairs firms of its kind, where she was responsible for multiple public engagement campaigns for Fortune 500 companies, issue advocacy groups, and national non-profits. She is fluent in Spanish, a seasoned cultural interpreter, and a digital marketing expert. Her passion is connecting people and ideas to drive growth and social impact for her clients.

Ellen PadnosEllen co-founded and was Editor-in-Chief of Women.com which she sold with her husband in 2013. Ellen spent her early career working in Sales and Operations at Yahoo in Silicon Valley and for USA Networks in New York.
Ellen currently resides in Manhattan Beach with her young family. She loves what she does and with over 100 active members of her groups, Joyful Giving and Joyful Giving Kids, is changing how her community, young and old, finds out and supports local nonprofits, not only financially but through volunteering and activism too.

Erin Ross, Chair
Erin Ross serves as the Senior Managing Director of Site Revenue for City Year Los Angeles, the largest site of the national AmeriCorps program dedicated to tackling the high school dropout crisis. Erin joined City Year L.A. in 2006 as a member of the start-up team and has been instrumental in growing the program from an annual budget of $2M to $13+M in 10 years. In her current role, she is responsible for overseeing all public and private revenue for the site. Previously she was responsible for private sector fundraising and successfully built and managed relationships with corporations, foundations, and individual donors including The Walt Disney Company, Sony, JPMorgan Chase, the W.M. Keck Foundation, Rose Hills Foundation, Ralph M. Parsons, and more. The annual fundraising gala she launched, “Spring Break: Destination Education” was recognized as one of the “Best Events of 2011” by Society News LA. Prior to joining City Year, Erin was a member of the founding team of United Leaders, a national non-profit focused on training the next generation of political leaders. For her work at United Leaders, she was recognized with the Gleitsman Foundation Award of Achievement and featured in The Los Angeles Times, Boston Magazine, The Washington Post, “Taking Back the Vote” and more. Erin graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University. She is also a graduate of the 2009 Class of Leadership L.A. Erin lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Mike Liotta, and their son, Duncan.

Howard WangHoward Wang joined Ares Management in 2000 and is currently a Managing Director and Senior Analyst in the Ares Credit Group, where he focuses on investment opportunities in non-investment grade U.S. corporate credit. Prior to joining Ares, Howard was a Senior Associate in the Assurance and Business Advisory Services unit at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley – Haas School of Business and an M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles – Anderson School of Management, where he graduated as a Global Access Program Fellow. Howard is an ardent supporter of public education, a competitive endurance athlete, and a life-long Dodgers and Lakers fan. He resides in Cerritos with his wife and two daughters.

Josh HoltJosh Holt is a partner in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins and a member of the Finance Department. Mr. Holt’s practice focuses on the representation of banks, commercial finance companies, business development companies, and other financial institutions, as well as equity sponsors and other borrowers, in a wide range of transactional matters. Josh has been recognized as an “Associate to Watch” by Chambers USA 2016 and 2017, and selected as a Southern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2017. He holds a J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Washington and an M.A. from the University of Chicago. Josh is an avid outdoor enthusiast with his wife and two sons.

Michelle Regan Wedberg
Michelle Regan Wedberg serves as the Vice President for Service Operations at City Year. In this role, Michelle is responsible for supporting achievement of site-level goals for impact at over 200 partner schools nationwide. Michelle comes to this role having gathered over fifteen years of experience in leading youth development and school-based service work. She spent eight years in the field with City Year Greater Philadelphia where she led school-based teams and rose to become Director of the site’s Young and City Heroes programs. Michelle was promoted to Headquarters as the National Young Heroes Director in 2004, before moving on to help develop and lead City Year’s Whole School, Whole Child model. Michelle does her work out of New Orleans, LA and is honored to serve as a board member for Big Citizen HUB and Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools.

Morgan Keller
Morgan Keller is a co-owner of Indie Brewing Company. Sporting an MBA from Loyola Marymount University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Southern California, Morgan is an advertising industry veteran, having worked his way up the ranks of Los Angeles’ top agencies (Chiat Day and Saatchi & Saatchi). As a producer and technical lead for clients such as Gatorade, Pepsi, Disney, Toyota, Nissan and Infiniti, Morgan has led large cross-functional teams to execute advertising campaigns on-time and on-budget. In addition to the management aspect of his work, he has technical expertise in both traditional and interactive methods of advertising and strategy including email marketing, viral campaigns, and social media. His responsibilities with Indie Brewing Company include development and implementation of marketing activities, company operations, and growth strategy.